双语阅读｜手机小额贷款风靡非洲
GETTING a microloan is far easier than getting a bank loan. But in east Africa many people have access to an even easier source of credit. It takes just a few taps on a phone to obtain a short-term loan, which will arrive in a mobile-money account almost immediately. It is an exciting, scary development, says Dean Karlan, a development economist at Yale University.
获得小额信贷远比银行贷款容易得多。但在东非，很多人能接触更为方便的信贷机构。只需在手机上轻点几下即可获得短期贷款，几乎立即就能到达手机账户。耶鲁大学（Yale University）的发展经济学家迪恩·卡恩（Dean Karlan）表示，这是一项令人兴奋的，也是可怕的发展。
Mobile wallets such as M-PESA and Tigo Cash have already transformed microfinance. In the African countries where they are widespread, microlenders no longer need to distribute and collect piles of bank notes—always a cumbersome task and often a dangerous one. VisionFund, which is part of World Vision International, a Christian charity, channels 95% of its Kenyan loan payments and 98% of its Tanzanian ones through mobile wallets.
手机钱包如M-PESA和Tigo Cash完全改变了小额信贷的模式。在手机钱包流行的非洲国家，小额信贷机构不再需要发放和收集成堆的银行票据，这常常是一项繁琐且危险的工作。基督教慈善机构世界宣明会（World Vision International）旗下的VisionFund通过手机钱包为肯尼亚提供95％的贷款和为坦桑尼亚提供98%的贷款。
Now mobile-network operators and their financial partners are rushing into lending. GSMA, an industry group, says that 45 mobile-credit services were operating in December 2015, four-fifths of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Some are growing fast: M-PAWA, a mobile savings-and-loan service in Tanzania, acquired 1m customers in just five months.
现今移动网络运营商和其金融合作伙伴都涌向贷款。移动通讯行业组织GSM组织表示，仅2015年12月，就有45个移动信贷机构正在运行小额贷款，其中五分之四位于非洲撒哈拉以南地区。一些公司发展迅速：M-PAWA是坦桑尼亚的一家移动储蓄和贷款服务公司，在仅仅短短五个月内就获得了100万余名客户。
The mobile networks seldom compete directly with microlenders. Most of their loans are tiny—more nano than micro—and must be repaid in a month or two. They are strongest in Africa, where microlenders have always been scarce. But some are now offering bigger, longer-term loans. And mobile money is spreading: it has taken off even in Bangladesh, where microlending was born.
移动通讯网络很少直接与小额信贷机构正面竞争。机构发放的大部分贷款的还款期非常短，必须在一两个月内偿还。他们在非洲是最具影响力的，在那里小额信贷总是稀缺。但现在有人提供更大额，更长期的贷款。在移动货币正在扩展：即使在孟加拉国也出现了小额贷款。
Mike Gama-Lobo of FINCA, a microfinance pioneer, is particularly excited by the possibility of fusing mobile money with traditional microlending. Mobile-network operators know a good deal about their customers from the phone calls they make and receive, and the records of money passing through their mobile wallets. FINCA and others are now trying to use those data to filter potential borrowers.
小额信贷先驱的FINCA公司Mike Gama-Lobo对移动货币与传统小额贷款融合的可能性感到特别兴奋。通过客户所拨打和接听的电话，以及他们移动钱包的账户记录，移动网络运营商能得到非常多的信息。FINCA和其他移动通讯公司正试图利用这些数据来筛选潜在的借款人。
Microlending shows that villagers and slum-dwellers are pretty good judges of each others’ finances. But their phones often know more about them than their neighbours do. And nobody spreads malign rumours about phones.
小额贷款的现象表明，村民和贫民窟居民对他人的财政有着良好的判断。但他们的手机远比他们的邻居更了解他们。毕竟没有人会传播有关手机的谣言。
编译：丁璀琦
审校：张楚燕
编辑：翻吧君
来源：经济学人